Foreigners put C$22 billion into Canadian securities in October

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Foreigners poured C$22.08 billion ($16.12 billion) into Canadian securities in October, their highest net acquisition in six months and up from C$3.35 billion in September, Statistics Canada said on Wednesday. The vast majority was in bonds.

For the year to date, foreign investment in Canadian securities now totaled C$97.53 billion, the highest since the first 10 months of 2010.

Part of the increase was because Statistics Canada as of September's data started including covered bonds, which are issued by banks and secured by a segregated pool of assets. A Statscan official said foreign purchases of covered bonds amounted to a few billion dollars in October.

Previously, covered bonds were classified under currency and deposit liabilities in the "other investment" category of the balance of payments.

However, C$10.23 billion of the foreign acquisitions was in government bonds, the highest level since May 2014. Overall foreign investment in Canadian bonds jumped to C$15.44 billion in October from a mere C$896 million in September, almost evenly split between foreign acquisitions on the secondary market and new issues placed abroad, the agency said.